Greenwood Passes Wood Late for LRRS Win

NHMS PR Official Release

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Greenwood Passes Wood Late for Win

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TitleGreenwood Passes Wood Late for Win

DescriptionScott Greenwood stalked Eric Wood for most of the race before making a late pass to win the Loudon Road Race Series Middleweight Grand Prix. Christian Cronin was third, and Cole Hall was the top Amateur.

Scott Greenwood passed Eric Wood late in the Loudon Road Race Series Middleweight Grand Prix on Saturday to win one of the closest class battles in recent memory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Wood earned the holeshot on the No. 5 Kawasaki ZX-6R and led the first 10 laps with Greenwood chasing him throughout. On lap 11, Wood had a small wobble exiting Turn 6, and Greenwood was able to sneak the No. 4 Yamaha YZF-R6 underneath the leader to take over the point position.

Having taken the lead, Greenwood was able to open up a small gap to lead the final two laps and earn his fourth win of the season in the premier class of LRRS.

"The race was coming to me, I knew it was there," Greenwood said of the early part of the race. "I was trying to find a way by, and every time I would try to make a move I would lose a little bit and have to make it back up. "

He cited the loss of grip over the course of the race as the biggest factor that helped him pass his veteran competitor, saying: "At the end, when the grip levels seemed to go down a little bit, I was able to close up on some of the big drives that he had, and make a move in Turn 6 and cut underneath him before Turn 7."

For his part, Wood had his best performance of the year, breaking the 1:12 mark for the first time this season with a race-best lap of 1:11.757. The 2011 & '12 class champion has not won this "Dash for Cash" event since May 17, 2014, a streak of 11 races.

In leading 10 of 12 laps, Wood gained optimism that the winless streak will be snapped soon.

"We went from leading eight laps, now we've led 10 laps, so we got to just make those last two," Wood said of his approach for the final race of the season on Oct. 3. "That's the goal for the last event; we'll see how it goes."

Christian Cronin finished on the podium for the first time this season by taking third. Kristofer Knopf, Cory Hildebrand, Kip Peterson, Joel Allen, Zev Ginsberg, Michael Weyant, and Alexander Guilbeault rounded out the top-10. Cole Hall was the top amateur.